U.S. patent number 7,065,188 [Application Number 09/421,363] was granted by the patent office on 2006-06-20 for system and method for personalizing dialogue menu for an interactive voice response system.
This patent grant is currently assigned to International Business Machines Corporation. Invention is credited to Gee-Gwo Mei, Kun-Lung Wu, Philip Shi-lung Yu.
United States Patent |
7,065,188 |
Mei , et al. |
June 20, 2006 |
System and method for personalizing dialogue menu for an
interactive voice response system
Abstract
A method and system for personalizing an interactive voice
response (IVR) system to reduce a number of key sequences to reach
a desired source of information, includes storing a caller profile,
and retrieving the caller's profile to construct a personalized IVR
dialogue menu and play out the personalized menu.
Inventors: |
Mei; Gee-Gwo (Yorktown Heights,
NY), Wu; Kun-Lung (Yorktown Heights, NY), Yu; Philip
Shi-lung (Chappaqua, NY) |
Assignee: |
International Business Machines
Corporation (Armonk, NY)
|
Family
ID: |
36586486 |
Appl.
No.: |
09/421,363 |
Filed: |
October 19, 1999 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
379/88.23;
379/76; 704/E15.04 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04M
3/493 (20130101); G10L 15/22 (20130101); H04M
2203/355 (20130101); G10L 2015/227 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
H04M
1/64 (20060101) |
Field of
Search: |
;379/88.25,88.23,88.17,88.16,71,93.12,67.1,76 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Tsang; Fan
Assistant Examiner: Anwah; Olisa
Attorney, Agent or Firm: McGinn IP Law Group, PLLC Kaufman,
Esq.; Stephen C.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method for personalizing an interactive voice response (IVR)
system to reduce a number of key sequences to reach a desired
source of information, comprising: storing a caller profile;
accessing said IVR system via a telephone; retrieving the caller
profile to construct a personalized IVR dialogue menu and play out
the personalized IVR dialogue menu via said telephone, said
personalized IVR dialogue menu comprising: a plurality of shortcut
paths including an option for changing said plurality of shortcut
paths in said personalized IVR dialogue menu; and performing a
tree-based collapsing of said personalized IVR dialogue menu,
wherein said personalized IVR dialogue menu is at least one of
based on a caller access pattern and configurable by said
caller.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: tracking an access
pattern of said caller.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: specifying, by said
caller, a content of said personalized IVR dialogue menu.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing a tracking
of IVR accessing patterns of said caller such that one of said
plurality of shortcut paths is provided to a desired location based
on said caller's IVR accessing patterns.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein said one of said plurality of
shortcut paths is based on a most-recently accessed IVR
pattern.
6. The method of claim 4, wherein said one of said plurality of
shortcut paths is based on a most-frequently accessed IVR
pattern.
7. The method of claim 3, wherein a specification of said
personalized IVR menu is performed over a telephone.
8. The method of claim 3, wherein a specification of said
personalized IVR menu is performed over a network.
9. The method according to claim 8, wherein said network comprises
at least one of a World-Wide-Web (WWW), an intranet, and a personal
area network (PAN).
10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: displaying to said
caller said IVR menu to reduce a number of key sequences during
interactions.
11. The method of claim 1, further comprising: inserting a
personalized sub-menu into said personalized IVR dialogue menu.
12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: inserting
an advertisement into said caller's personalized IVR dialogue menu,
based on the caller's IVR past accessing patterns, during said
caller's navigation of said personalized IVR dialogue menu.
13. The method according to claim 12, wherein said inserting of
said advertisement is based on contents of said menu that the
caller has accessed.
14. The method according to claim 1, wherein said retrieving is
performed upon said system receiving a telephone call from said
caller.
15. A system for personalizing an interactive voice response (IVR)
system to reduce a number of key sequences to reach a desired
source of information, comprising: a storage device for storing a
caller profile; a telephone for accessing said IVR system; and a
retrieval unit for: retrieving the caller profile to construct a
personalized IVR dialogue menu and play-out the personalized IVR
dialogue menu via said telephone, said personalized IVR dialogue
menu comprising: a plurality of shortcut paths including an option
for changing said plurality of shortcut paths in said personalized
IVR dialogue menu; and performing a tree-based collapsing of said
personalized IVR dialogue menu, wherein said personalized IVR
dialogue menu is at least one of based on a caller access pattern
and configurable by said caller.
16. The system according to claim 15, wherein said retrieval unit
retrieves said caller profile upon said system receiving a
telephone call from said caller.
17. The system according to claim 15, wherein said retrieval unit
is selectively interfaced with a network and a public switch
telephone network (PSTN).
18. The system according to claim 17, wherein said retrieval unit
includes: a telephone interface module for selectively interfacing
with said PSTN and for selectively receiving a predetermined tone
and a voice input from said caller via the PSTN, wherein said
telephone interface module selectively transmits at least one of
synthesized and stored voice messages to said caller via the PSTN,
wherein said personalized IVR dialogue menu is configurable by said
caller through the PSTN via said telephone interface module.
19. The system according to claim 15, wherein said retrieval unit
further includes: a dialogue handler, coupled to receive an input
from said caller, for modeling state transitions of said system, to
provide an output, wherein the output of said dialogue handler
module determines a message to be returned to said caller, and an
input of said dialogue handler module is derived from a caller
input via at least one of a predetermined tone and a voice message
form said caller.
20. The system according to claim 15, wherein said retrieval unit
further includes: a dialogue logging and analysis module for
recording a dialogue between the IVR system and said caller, and
logging input sequences from said caller of the IVR system while
said caller conducts said dialogue with said IVR system, wherein
said input sequences logged are for analyzing said caller's access
patterns.
21. The system according to claim 20, wherein the analyzed access
patterns are for providing a shortcut for personalized access to at
least one of a most-frequently accessed information of said caller
and a most-recently accessed dialogue path of said caller.
22. The system according to claim 21, wherein, based on said input
sequences logged, said dialogue logging and analysis module
provides at least one of personalized direct access automatically
when said caller next calls the IVR system and a suggestion of such
access pattern to said caller for creating said personalized
menu.
23. The system according to claim 15, wherein said retrieval unit
further includes: a dialogue automatic playout module for allowing
personalized access of information by said caller, wherein if said
caller decides to use a personalized shortcut path unique to said
caller, control sequences representing said shortcut path are input
to said dialogue automatic playout module.
24. The system according to claim 15, wherein said retrieval unit
further includes: a personalized menu processor module for
constructing said shortcut for the personalized menus specified by
said caller, wherein specification is selectively performed over
one of a telephone interaction and a world-wide network, and
wherein a personalized menu specified by said caller is represented
by one of a list of direct dialogue paths to desired information
and a hierarchical dialogue menu.
25. A system for personalizing an interactive voice response (IVR)
system to reduce a number of key sequences to reach a desired
source of information, comprising: a storage for storing a caller
profile; and a retrieval unit for: retrieving the caller's profile
to construct a personalized IVR dialogue menu and play-out the
personalized menu, said retrieval unit being selectively interfaced
with a network and a public switch telephone network (PSTN), and
said personalized IVR dialogue menu comprising: a plurality of
shortcut paths including an option for changing said plurality of
shortcut paths in said personalized IVR dialogue menu; and
performing a tree-based collapsing of said personalized IVR
dialogue menu, wherein said retrieval unit includes: a telephone
interface module for selectively interfacing with said PSTN and for
selectively receiving a predetermined tone and a voice input from
said caller via the PSTN, said telephone interface module
selectively transmitting at least one of synthesized and stored
voice messages to said caller via the PSTN, wherein said
personalized IVR dialogue menu is configurable by said caller
through the PSTN via said telephone interface module, wherein said
retrieval unit further includes: a network interface module for
communicating with external systems via the network to retrieve
information for the IVR system to playback via said telephone
interface module, wherein said network interface module presents a
configurable menu to the caller via the network for the caller to
specify the caller's personalized dialogue menu, and wherein the
network interface module parses text messages into a predetermined
format such that the parsed text messages are used to interact with
the caller through said telephone interface module.
26. The system according to claim 17, wherein said network includes
at least one of the Internet, an intranet, and a personal area
network.
27. A signal-bearing medium tangibly embodying a program of
machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing
apparatus to perform a method for personalizing an interactive
voice response (IVR) system to reduce a number of key sequences to
reach a desired source of information, said method comprising:
storing a caller profile; accessing said IVR system via a
telephone; retrieving the caller profile to construct a
personalized IVR dialogue menu and play out the personalized IVR
dialogue menu via said telephone, said personalized IVR dialogue
menu comprising: a plurality of shortcut paths including an option
for changing said plurality of shortcut paths in said personalized
IVR dialogue menu; and performing a tree-based collapsing of said
personalized IVR dialogue menu, wherein said personalized IVR
dialogue menu is at least one of based on a caller access pattern
and configurable by said caller.
28. The method of claim 1, wherein said personalized menu is
constructed based on said caller's defined parameter other than a
most recent selection made by said caller.
29. The method of claim 1, wherein said personalized menu is
constructed automatically by said system based on available user
profile information not limited to said caller's most recently
accessed menu selection.
30. The system of claim 15, further comprising: means for
constructing said personalized menu based on said caller's defined
parameter other than a most recent selection made by said
caller.
31. The system of claim 15, wherein said personalized menu is
constructed automatically by said system based on available caller
profile information not limited to said caller's most recently
accessed menu selection.
32. The method of claim 1, wherein said option for changing said
plurality of shortcuts in said personalized IVR dialogue menu,
comprises an option for changing said personalized menu to include
a selected shortcut.
33. The method of claim 1, wherein said option for changing said
plurality of shortcut paths in said personalized IVR dialogue menu
comprises an option for selecting a sequence of direct dialogue
paths to be included in said personalized IVR dialogue menu.
34. The method of claim 1, wherein said option for changing said
plurality of shortcut paths in said personalized IVR dialogue menu
comprises an option for changing said personalized IVR dialogue
menu before navigating said personalized IVR dialogue menu during a
current call.
35. The method of claim 1, wherein said plurality of shortcut paths
comprises system-analyzed shortcuts which are based on a caller
access pattern, and user-defined shortcuts which are specified by
said caller.
36. The method of claim 35, wherein said personalized IVR dialogue
menu further comprises an option for selecting a default main
menu.
37. The method of claim 1, further comprising: inserting an
advertisement into said caller's personalized IVR dialogue menu,
based on the caller's IVR past accessing patterns, during said
caller's navigation of said personalized IVR dialogue menu, wherein
said option for changing said plurality of shortcuts in said
personalized IVR dialogue menu comprises an option for changing
said personalized IVR dialogue menu to include a selected shortcut,
and wherein a specification of said personalized IVR dialogue menu
is performed over a network comprising at least one of a
World-Wide-Web (WWW), an intranet, and a personal area network
(PAN).
38. The method of claim 3, wherein said specifying said content of
said personalized IVR dialogue menu comprises at least one of
adding a shortcut path to and deleting a shortcut path from said
personalized IVR dialogue menu.
39. The method of claim 1, wherein said option for changing said
plurality of shortcut paths in said personalized IVR dialogue menu
comprises an option for at least one of adding a shortcut path to
and deleting a shortcut path from said personalized IVR dialogue
menu.
40. The method of claim 1, wherein upon electing said option for
changing said plurality of shortcut paths, said system provides a
dialogue for allowing said caller to use said telephone to input
user-defined shortcuts via key sequences based on key-to-shortcut
mapping.
41. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving said caller
profile comprises playing out said personalized IVR dialogue menu
upon said system receiving a telephone call from said user.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is generally related to an interactive voice
response (IVR) system and method, and more particularly to a system
and method for personalizing a dialogue menu for an interactive
voice response system.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Interactive voice response (IVR) systems have been widely used by
many organizations to provide computerized customer support
services, such as account access and technical support for products
and services (e.g., retail, financial, administrative, etc.). When
a support center with an IVR system is contacted by a caller, the
caller is typically presented with voice information. The IVR
system poses voice queries to the caller, typically in a
menu-driven fashion. Then, the caller inputs responses via a
touch-tone (e.g., dual-tone multifrequency (DTMF)) telephone to the
voice queries from the IVR system. In most cases, the caller is
then presented with additional voice queries based on the responses
received.
As alluded to above, the IVR system typically presents a caller
with voice queries based on some standard hierarchical dialogue
menu (e.g., a decision tree). General queries are presented first
at the top level, and then, based on the caller's responses, more
specific queries are presented at lower levels to narrow the
caller's requests. At the lowest level in the IVR system menu,
namely the "leaf" level in a decision tree, the caller is finally
presented with the most specific voice information available. It is
this more specific information that the caller must navigate
through sequentially and which the caller is usually most
interested in.
Thus, there are several problems with such a standard menu
presentation for an IVR system. Firstly, every caller typically
must listen to the same standard menu and place a different
sequence of phone keys on the telephone set to navigate the IVR
system. These static-type menu-based approaches are very
time-consuming. Such menu-driven systems are normally too general
for a specific caller to obtain his/her desired information (and
certainly not in a timely manner).
Moreover, in some cases such as using portable cellular telephones,
the caller must actuate many telephone keys to indicate his desires
and confirm the same. Such small portable phones typically must be
lifted from the user's ear and then must depress the telephone
key(s) and so forth to move through each of the options presented
by the menu. This is highly inconvenient.
Secondly, with the ever more complex services being provided via an
IVR system, it is becoming more difficult to successfully navigate
an IVR system menu. Usually, it is only after a long sequence of
pushing the buttons that the caller finally obtains the desired
information or services. If mistakes were made during the
button-pushing process, a caller normally is lost. This represents
a major inconvenience to the user, and potentially a lost
opportunity (customer) to the retailer, etc. Sometimes the user
does not even know how to go back to the main menu. It is not
uncommon for a caller to make many phone calls to get to the
desired information or obtain the needed services. Consequently,
the frustrated caller becomes an unhappy customer.
Thirdly, even if a caller is successful in navigating the complex
menu, it is still inconvenient to go through the same long sequence
again and again every time the caller accesses the same
information. For example, a caller calls an 800 number to check the
caller's bank account for a certain deposit check. The caller may
have to make many calls during a period of several days. This
caller must listen and go through the same menu(s) having a long
sequence of buttons and commands repeatedly.
In one conventional system, a system and method are disclosed for
graphically displaying and navigating through an interactive voice
response menu. The emphasis is on displaying the IVR menu
graphically on a computer screen to let a caller navigate the menu
graphically. However, such a system does not present a personalized
menu for a caller.
Furthermore, such a system does not keep track of caller's access
patterns, nor does the system present another set of personalized
menus for a caller based on the caller's prior access patterns.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing and other problems, disadvantages, and
drawbacks of the conventional systems and method, an object of the
present invention is to provide a system and method for providing a
personalizable dialogue menu for an IVR system such that each
customer can specify the customer's own interests.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a
personalizable IVR system which keeps track of a caller's
previously accessed patterns and provides a shortcut thereto.
In a first aspect of the present invention, a method of
personalizing an IVR system to reduce the number of key sequences
to reach desired source of information, includes storing a caller
profile, and retrieving the caller's profile to construct a
personalized IVR dialogue menu and play out the personalized
menu.
In a second aspect, a system is provided for implementing the above
method.
Further, in a third aspect, a signal-bearing medium is provided for
storing the method of the present invention.
In accordance with the illustrated embodiment of the present
invention, the above-mentioned problems associated with an IVR
system using a standard hierarchical menu are solved.
That is, in a first, non-limiting embodiment of the present
invention, once a caller is identified by the IVR system, the
caller is presented with a personalized voice menu so that the
caller can go to the desired destination via shortcuts provided by
the IVR system. The personalized voice menu can be specified by the
caller via the touch-tone telephone or via a browser and the World
Wide Web (WWW). After receiving callers' specifications, a list of
shortcuts to the desired destinations are provided in the
personalized dialogue menu.
In another non-limiting embodiment of the present invention, the
IVR system also tracks the caller's access patterns. A set of
personalized menu are presented to a caller based on the caller's
past access patterns.
A caller to such a personalized IVR system can access the desired
information from the menu more quickly and efficiently according to
the caller's personal interests. Besides the default standard
system menu, the caller is also presented with a list of
personalized shortcuts to go to the caller's desired destinations
without the typical lengthy and time-consuming interactions with
the IVR system.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network system according to a first
preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an IVR system that supports
personalizable dialogue menu according to an exemplary embodiment
of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a conventional IVR dialogue menu;
FIG. 4 illustrates a personalized IVR menu according to a first
preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of the operation of an IVR system
supporting the personalizable dialogue menu according to the
present invention;
FIG. 6 illustrates another exemplary personalized dialogue menu for
an IVR system;
FIG. 7 illustrates a standard menu with a node 701 as a main
menu;
FIG. 8 illustrates a resulting simplified personalized menu from
that shown in FIG. 7; and
FIG. 9 illustrates a storage medium for storing steps of the
program for eliminating visible artifacts in overlapped
projections.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE PRESENT
INVENTION
Turning now to the FIGS. 1 9, hereinbelow preferred embodiments of
the present invention will be described.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network system that supports
touch-tone phones to access an IVR system 120 via the public
switched telephone network (PSTN), in accordance with an exemplary
embodiment of the present invention. Customers preferably use
touch-tone phones 101, 102, 103 to access the IVR system 120 via
the PSTN 110 by dialing the telephone number of the IVR system. It
is noted that any touch-tone phones can be used, includes wired and
wireless phones.
The IVR system 120 preferably includes a computer system that
typically has PSTN cards, a central processing unit (CPU), memory,
storage, networking devices, text-to-speech (TTS) synthesizers,
DTMF detection systems and voice recognition systems.
The IVR system 120 stores a dialogue menu that it uses to interact
with the telephone users through the telephone keypads or voice
inputs. According to an exemplary embodiment of the present
invention, the IVR system 120 also stores customer profiles
containing personalized dialogue menus which can be specified by
the users or suggested by the IVR system based on the user's
previous access patterns.
Finally, the IVR system 120 may also have an IP (Internet Protocol)
connection to a data network, such as the Internet 130, an intranet
(not shown), a personal area network (PAN) (not shown), and the
like, through which the dialogue menu can be customized by the user
with a browser running on a computer 141, 142, 143.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an IVR system 200 that supports a
personalizable dialogue menu in accordance with an exemplary
embodiment of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 2, the IVR system 200 preferably includes a
computer system including a CPU 210, a fixed or removable storage
device (e.g., hereafter referred to as a "disk", for convenience,
but obviously not limited thereto) 211 and a dynamic random access
memory 212. The IVR system 200 preferably is connected to both the
PSTN 201 and the Internet 202. User profiles, as well as their
personalized dialogue menus, are stored on disk 211 and can be
fetched into the dynamic random memory 212 for processing by the
CPU 210. The software program logic 220 for the IVR system 200 is
also stored on disk 211 as executable code and can be loaded into
the memory 212 as needed to perform the IVR functions.
The major functional modules of the IVR system that support a
personalizable dialogue menu include a phone interface module 230,
a dialogue handler module 231, a dialogue logging and analysis
module 232, a dialogue auto (automatic) playout module 233, a
personalized menu processor module 234, and an Internet interface
module 235.
The phone interface module 230 is responsible for receiving DTMF
tones or voice inputs from the users via the PSTN 201, and for
transmitting synthesized or stored voice messages to the users also
via the PSTN 201. The configuration of a personalized menu can be
performed by a user through the PSTN 201 via this telephone
interface module 230.
The Internet interface module 235 is the interface to the Internet
202, and communicates with other systems via the Internet 202 to
retrieve information necessary for the IVR system to playback via
the phone interface 230. For example, module 235 can use various
message protocols, such as pop3, sendmail, HTTP, SHTTP, NNTP and
FTP, and the like, to retrieve messages from the Internet. It can
also present a configurable menu to the IVR users via the Web for
the users to specify their personalized IVR dialogue menus. The
personalized menu specification as well as other messages received
from the Internet are generally in text format. The Internet
interface module 235 thus must parse these text messages into a
certain format so that the IVR system can use them to interact with
the users through the phone interface module 230.
The dialogue handler module 231 contains a finite state machine
(FSM) that models the state transitions of an IVR system. That is,
the FSM is triggered by key sequences. Preferably, some defaults
are built-in to the FSM. For example, a default may include if the
system is waiting for a key input but none is received within a
predetermined amount of time, then a default action is triggered by
the system.
The outputs of the dialogue handler module 231 determine the
messages that go back to the phone users. The inputs of dialogue
handler module 231 are derived from user inputs either via DTMF or
voice messages from the phone users. The FSM is constructed based
on the dialogue menu such as that described below with regard to
FIG. 3. Basically, the FSM takes an input from the phone user and
makes a state transition. Each state is corresponding to a node in
the directed graph represented by the dialogue menu.
The dialogue logging and analysis module 232 records the dialogues
between the IVR system and the phone users (e.g., automatically).
It logs the input sequences from each phone user of the IVR system
while he/she conducts dialogues with the IVR system. The
information collected can be used to analyze each user's access
patterns.
The analyzed access patterns, such as the latest dialogue paths or
the most frequently traversed dialogue paths, can then be used to
provide shortcuts for personalized access to the frequently
accessed information for the phone users. The IVR system can
provide such personalized direct access automatically when a phone
user next calls the IVR system. Alternatively, the IVR system can
suggest such access patterns to the users for creating personalized
menus.
The dialogue auto playout module 233 facilitates the personalized
access of information by the users. If a user decides to use
his/her personalized shortcuts, the control sequences representing
the shortcuts will be fed into the dialogue auto playout module
233.
However, the intermediate output messages from the IVR system will
not go back to the user during the auto playout. It is only the
final output message from the auto playout session that will go
back to the phone users. Those skilled in the art will appreciate
that it is possible to facilitate the direct access of personalized
information by other means. For example, a pointer to the desired
information can be used to enable the dialogue auto playout module
to directly play-out the message once a user chooses to use the
shortcut.
The personalized menu processor module 234 constructs shortcuts for
the personalized menus specified by the users. The specification
can be performed either via phone interactions or via the Web. Once
specified by the user, the personalized menu can be represented by
a list of direct dialogue paths to the desired information or a
simplified hierarchical dialogue menu.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram describing a conventional IVR dialogue
menu. Before a user can navigate the conventional system menu, the
user must dial a phone number. Then, there is typically a network
access authentication 301. During the network access
authentication, the user is typically asked to enter through the
phone keypad the user account number and password (personal
identification number (PIN) etc. After authentication, a main menu
302 will be presented.
In the main menu 302, a list of options will be announced, such as
"for account balance, please press 1; for account action, please
press 2; for rate of return, please press 3;" . . . , and so on. If
a user presses 2 on a touch-tone phone from the main menu 302, then
the IVR system will announce the account action menu 303. In the
account action menu, another list of options will then be announced
by the IVR system to the user. If the user presses 2 again, then
the user must listen to another list of options 304. Finally, if
the user presses 2 again, then the user must listen to the message
of transferring fund balance by dollar amount 305.
One major drawback of the above-described IVR dialogue menu is that
a user cannot change the flow of the IVR operations. Namely, a user
cannot change the design of the dialogue menu. It is not possible
to program one's own personalized dialogue menu where shortcuts can
be provided for more efficient navigation of the dialogue menu.
Each user must listen to the same hierarchical dialogue menu
step-by-step (e.g., sequentially) in order to reach the desired
information source.
For example, if a user is just interested in transferring the
user's fund balance by dollar amount, the user must press a
sequence of keys (e.g., three keys such as pressing 2 followed by 2
followed by another 2). For this simple IVR application, the user
must wait for the IVR to repeat the voice messages on the menu
before it reaches what the user desires. This is usually
time-consuming and error-prone, especially if the IVR dialogue menu
is a complex and deep hierarchical menu. The user of a complicated
IVR system can easily be lost.
FIG. 4 shows a personalized IVR menu in accordance with an
exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Here, the IVR main
menu 402 contains a list of personalized shortcut paths in addition
to the default main menu. The option for changing one's
personalized menu is also provided in the main menu. There can be
two kinds of shortcuts. One is user-defined and the other is
system-analyzed.
User-defined shortcuts are defined by the user via the phone or via
the Web. For example, option 1 in the main menu 402 represents a
shortcut for a key sequence (2, 2, 2) from the default menu in FIG.
3. System-analyzed shortcuts are derived from a user's previously
traversed paths. A user can ask the system to provide the most
frequently traversed dialogue paths or the most recently traversed
dialogue paths or others. The system may provide the most
frequently traversed dialogue paths on its own transparent to the
user.
In FIG. 4, after network access authentication 401, the
personalized main menu 402 is presented to the phone user. If a
user simply presses 1 in 402, the user will be listening to the
message about transferring fund balance by dollar amount 403. In
contrast, in the conventional system and method shown in FIG. 3, a
user must press three consecutive 2s in order to reach this
information. The default main menu, the account action menu, and
the transfer fund balance menu are all skipped in FIG. 4.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that, before a user sets
up his/her own personalized main menu, the IVR system can provide a
list of default shortcuts in the main menu. When a user dials into
the IVR system for the first time, he/she can choose to change the
personalized menu. On the other hand, the IVR system may simply
provide the option of setting up your own personalized shortcuts
for the first-time users in the main menu without a list of default
shortcuts.
FIG. 5 shows the flow diagram of the operations of an IVR system
that supports a personalizable dialogue menu in accordance with an
exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
A user first dials a phone number to the IVR system and passes
through the authentication (step 501). If the user is authenticated
(e.g., "YES" in step 502), then the IVR system retrieves the user's
profile, including system-analyzed and user-defined personalized
shortcuts, to construct the personalized main menu (e.g., step
504). The personalized main menu (see block 402 in FIG. 4)
typically contains a list of personalized shortcuts, a default main
menu, and the option to change the personalized menu. It is noted
that the user can select to turn off (e.g., deactivate) the
personalizable menu for whatever reason. Such a deactivation would
be performed just prior to step 504.
Depending on the inputs by the user, either via keypad or voice,
there are basically two options (e.g., one of which is selected in
step 505). A first option is to navigate the IVR system and the
other option is to change the personalized menu.
For navigation (e.g., steps 506 and beyond), if it is a shortcut,
then the dialogue auto playout module 233 is invoked to provide the
direct messages to the user. If it is a traversal of the default
menu, then the dialogue handler module 231 is used to provide
interactions with the user.
In both cases, the IVR system checks to see if the navigation is
finished (step 506). If not, it takes the input from the user and
plays out either the menu options or messages (step 507). For every
user action, in step 508 the access patterns are recorded by the
dialogue logging and analysis module 232.
After navigation is completed (e.g., "YES" in step 506), the
recorded user access patterns are analyzed (step 509). These access
patterns are then used to update the user's personalized menu, if
necessary. For example, a user may ask the IVR system to provide a
shortcut to the most frequently accessed dialogue path in the
user's personalized main menu. After the personalized menu is
updated, the system stops (step 510).
For changing the menu (e.g., steps 511 and beyond), the IVR system
provides a dialogue to take a user's specifications via, for
example, the phone (step 512). Basically, a user defines a "key
binding" for a shortcut. The shortcut can be represented by the key
sequence to reach a desired information source. For example, in
FIG. 4, key 1 is bound to the shortcut represented by the key
sequence (2, 2, 2). The key-to-shortcut mapping can also be
obtained via the Web.
In step 512, the user can also change the preferred system-analyzed
shortcuts. A user can specify which type of system-analzyed
shortcuts.
For example, a user can make shortcuts to one or more (e.g., the
two (2) most frequently traversed) dialogue paths, or one or more
of the previous traversed paths (e.g., the last three (3) most
recently traversed paths). After finishing changing the menu, the
changes are updated (step 513) and the system stops (step 503).
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are other
approaches to the design of the personalized menu within the
purview of the present application.
FIG. 6 is another example of a personalized dialogue menu for an
IVR system. Instead of defining a list of shortcuts, a simplified
hierarchical tree menu may be provided, especially if a user
desires many information destinations in the default dialogue
menu.
For example, one can define a personalized main menu 601 that
contains a sub-menu of user-defined shortcuts and another sub-menu
of system-analyzed shortcuts. With a user pressing a key on the
phone, the IVR system then leads to the appropriate sub-menu. In
block 602, the user-defined shortcuts are then listed. In block
603, the system-analyzed shortcuts are listed. Even within 602 and
603, another simplified hierarchical menu can also be designed by
the user.
Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that a simplified
tree can also be derived directly from the default menu by a
tree-collapsing method. This tree-collapsing method essentially
prunes: (1) branches leading to leaf nodes that are not chosen; and
(2) unnecessary intermediate nodes from a chosen node to the
nearest common ancestor node of another chosen node.
FIGS. 7 and 8 are examples of a tree-collapsing method to construct
a simplified personalized menu from a standard menu.
FIG. 7 shows a standard menu with node a (701) as the main menu.
FIG. 7 also shows that nodes e, g, o, and r (705, 706, 715, and
718) have been chosen by a user to be the preferred information
sources.
Accordingly, using the above-described tree-collapsing scheme in
which pruning branches leading to leaf nodes that are not chosen,
is performed, the branches leading to leaf nodes h, j, k, l, and p
(708, 710, 711, 712, and 716) will be pruned. The intermediate
nodes d, f, n, and q (704, 707, 714, and 717) will also be pruned.
Such nodes are pruned since they are not needed to provide a menu
choice.
However, nodes c and m (703 and 713) will be kept because they are
the nearest common ancestors of different chosen leaf nodes. Node b
(702) will be pruned since it is not a nearest common ancestor of
any two chosen leaf nodes. Node a 701 will also be kept since it is
the nearest common ancestor of nodes c and m (703 713), and these
two nodes are preserved because they are the nearest common
ancestors of different chosen leaf nodes.
FIG. 8 is the resultant simplified personalized menu from FIG. 7.
It starts with node a (801) and then has two branches to nodes c
and m (803 and 813). From node c (803), there are two branches to
the chosen nodes e and g (805 and 806). From node m (813), there
are two branches to the chosen nodes o and r (815 and 818).
Furthermore, in another aspect of the invention, those skilled in
the art will appreciate that, with dialogue logging and analysis,
it becomes possible to implement targeted advertisement insertion
based on a "collaborative filtering" approach.
Basically, collaborative filtering categorizes all the users into
one or more clusters based on a set of shown interests or purchased
items. Within a cluster, the users share certain common
characteristics, such as they all express interest in a certain
book. However, each user may also have other unique
characteristics.
For example, user A has read Books N, O, and P and user B has read
Books O, P and L. Users A and B are in the same cluster based on
the books that both have read. Book N represents a unique
characteristic of user A while Book L represents another unique
characteristic of user B. These unique characteristics can be used
as a basis for cross-promotion to users within a cluster. For
example, Book N can be cross-promoted to user B (e.g., based on
User A's reading of the book) while Book L can be cross-promoted to
user A (e.g., based on User B's reading of the Book L).
Thus, the users of an IVR system can be categorized into various
clusters/bins according to their past accessing patterns. Each
member of the cluster share a common attribute. The member(s) of
the cluster may have purchased a unique item (in the case above a
book) and other people in the cluster may be interested in such an
item (e.g., unique to the purchaser) by virtue of their being in
the same cluster as the purchaser.
Thus, from the users within a cluster, the contents accessed by the
users can be used to create targeted advertisement messages (e.g.,
in a banking environment, these advertisements could be for
promoting new financial services of the bank). Such advertisements
could also include a third-party's goods/advertisements. These
advertisement messages can be inserted into the personalized menus
and played out during the interactions with the IVR system (e.g.,
any place but preferably an area which is least intrusive to the
user).
As shown in FIG. 9, in addition to the hardware and process
environment described above, a different aspect of the invention
includes a computer-implemented method for personalizing an IVR
system to reduce the number of key sequences to reach a desired
source of information, as described above. As an example, this
method may be implemented in the particular hardware environment
discussed above.
Such a method may be implemented, for example, by operating the
central processing unit (CPU) 210 included in the structure shown
in FIG. 2, to execute a sequence of machine-readable instructions.
These instructions may reside in various types of signal-bearing
media, including disk 211.
Thus, this aspect of the present invention is directed to a
programmed product, comprising signal-bearing media tangibly
embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by
a digital data processor incorporating the CPU and hardware above,
to perform the method of personalizing an IVR system, as described
above.
This signal-bearing media may include, for example, a RAM (not
shown) contained within the CPU 210, as represented by the
fast-access storage for example. Alternatively, the instructions
may be contained in another signal-bearing media, such as a
magnetic data storage diskette 900 (FIG. 9), directly or indirectly
accessible by the CPU 210.
Whether contained in the diskette 900, disk 211, the CPU 210, or
elsewhere, the instructions may be stored on a variety of
machine-readable data storage media, such as DASD storage (e.g., a
conventional "hard drive" or a RAID array), magnetic tape,
electronic read-only memory (e.g., ROM, EPROM, or EEPROM), an
optical storage device (e.g. CD-ROM, WORM, DVD, digital optical
tape, etc.), paper "punch" cards, or other suitable signal-bearing
media including transmission media such as digital and analog and
communication links and wireless. In an illustrative embodiment of
the invention, the machine-readable instructions may comprise
software object code, compiled from a language such as "C",
etc.
While the invention has been described in terms of a preferred
embodiment, those skilled in the art will recognize that the
invention can be practiced with modification within the spirit and
scope of the appended claims.
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